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Partner with NCHE in Serving Home Educators in NC and Beyond

Membership

Become part of an organization devoted to serving NC homeschoolers. Help us advance our threefold purpose: PROTECT the freedom of educating at home, PROVIDE encouragement & support to families who choose home education for their children, and PROMOTE home education as an educational alternative

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About NCHE

In 1984, NCHE was organized by homeschool parents to support and encourage home educators and to protect the right to freely home educate in North Carolina. For 30 years, NCHE has endeavored to serve the homeschoolers in NC. Through the years, the homeschool community has grown and changed, and NCHE has developed many ways to meet the changing needs. Some of these ways no longer exist as we adjust to current technology and homeschool culture. As in 1984, NCHE continues to work to promote the excellence of home education, provide support for those who choose to do so, and protect the right to homeschool.

Just Some of What We Do

Although home education is the oldest form of education, NCHE was formed during a time when homeschoolers were being put in jail for homeschooling. The freedom to homeschool was definitely in question. It was officially recognized as legal in North Carolina in 1985. In May of that year, our state Supreme Court ruled that home education was a legal way of meeting the compulsory attendance regulations under the existing private school law.

Motivated by pressure from DPI after that ruling, the North Carolina General Assembly undertook the task of deciding whether further regulations should be applied to home education and what those regulations should be. Through the efforts of North Carolinians for Home Education (NCHE), an attempt to heavily regulate home education was averted, and a substitute bill authored by NCHE was passed that added a new section to the private school law: Article 39 of chapter 115C of the General Statutes.

Article 39 of chapter 115C of the General Statutes clearly designates home education as a method of complying with compulsory attendance regulations and contains minimal requirements. As a result of NCHE's hard work, the North Carolina law is now one of the nation's best.

Since that time, NCHE has been actively on the look-out for government action that would negatively impact home education and successfully putting a stop to it.

For the first time in 25 years, in March, 2013, NCHE went on the offensive to make the homeschool law even better and wrote and had filed a bill that would redefine “home school” This was done to resolve a problem that resulted from an interpretation by the Division of Non-Public Education. This new definition passed every vote unanimously and was signed into law on May 30, 2013.

Even before homeschooling was legally recognized in the state, NCHE organized a conference & book fair for home educators. This annual event has grown from a few hundred attendees to thousands. For 20 years, the NCHE annual Conference has taken place in May at Winston-Salem's Benton Convention Center. It is held on Memorial Day weekend, Thursday-Saturday. 2014's event was our 30th annual event, and featured over 100 workshops, 100 vendors, mentoring, a talent show, teen and alum socials.

In 1984, NCHE starting publishing a newsletter named the Greenhouse Report to keep the NCHE membership informed and encouraged. The name was chosen to represent the type of care homeschooling parents are able to give to their children. Children are lovingly "tended" in a protected and nurturing environment until they are sufficiently mature to go out and take a place of service in the world.

GREENHOUSE continues the tradition of the Greenhouse Report. It is a quarterly magazine plus a special Graduate issue.